THE NEXT HEALTH REVOLUTION ........

By now, we all know that we need to eat nutritiously, sleep properly and exercise regularly. But it's beginning to dawn on us that we also need to attend to the health of the mind.

Most of us are stressed. In fact, 75 percent of Americans complain they're under too much pressure. As most of us can attest, stress affects our mood and outlook on life. It's key to our mental health.

An effective way to change our reaction to the pressures of life is meditation. A recent Harvard University study showed meditation calms the part of the brain which triggers the stress response. When we react to pressure differently, our mind and body are free to function effectively. We are more likely to thrive.

But while we might have heard meditation is good for us, many of us think it will be too difficult, or that our mind is too busy or we doubt we can stick to it.

I’d had a big day already and I was really losing focus. I had exactly 20 minutes till my 3 pm meeting so I took a room at work and punched out a 20 minute session. It set me up for the rest of the day (and night).

I first met Jonathan 20 years ago when we were reporting for an Australian national current affairs program. We became firm friends. Our industry was cut throat and demanding and deeply serious.

He made me laugh … there wasn't a lot of humour around in the lonely hours of a late shift.

Jonathan went on to report from South Asia and the Middle East, write a memoir, create a television series for a major network, and become a field producer and then Supervising Producer of Sixty Minutes, Australia. He married writer/broadcaster Sarah MacDonald and had two sparkling kids.

Now he's Twitter’s Director of Media Partnerships, Australia, and he recently helped launch a new foundation in California to assist non-profit leaders.

Most of us admire our friends. Isn’t that why we spend time together? It seems to me our friends have qualities we either aspire to, or would like to enhance in ourselves.

Jonathan Harley .... "It just works for me. Life is better, clearer, calmer".

Jonathan’s inherent decency has always inspired me, plus he’s funny; at times, darkly so. Even when things are really tough, for either of us, he’ll eventually drop a line that will make me fall apart laughing.

Years ago, there were many things I’d say about Jonathan, but “relaxed” wasn’t one of them. In fact, I’d go so far to say he was “tightly wound”. But then Jonathan learned to meditate and it began to seem like he was getting more out of life.

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Q. What made you decide to learn Vedic meditation?A. I really wanted to find a new way to experience life that would help me enjoy and see life more clearly. I was open to anything - and to be honest, I was so busy at the time that I was also happy to just do 'something'.

Q. Did the benefits kick in immediately, or did it take a while?A. Not exactly. At first I found it hard! I had to learn to accept all the noise in my head was ok. For the first week or so I just had to punch on and hope it would pay off. Thankfully, it did.

Q. Five years down the track, you’re still meditating, why?A. It just works for me. Life is better, clearer, calmer when I am meditating regularly. It's not that is has totally turned my life on its head - I still try to do too much, for example - but it gives me a 'buffer" on the world, softens the edges and makes me a better person. How much better? Depends on how much meditating I am doing - and I am still way too stop-start with it. So there's a long way to go.